THE 4 - 95 STIRLING ENGINE FOR

UNDERWATER APPLICATION
Christer Bratt
Kockums Marine AB, 205 55 MALM6, Sweden
Abstract
The 4 - 95 Stirling engine was originally developed by Uni-
ted Stirling in the 1970s and more than 50 engines have
been manufactured and used in different applications.
The engine was used as a baseline engine in the Automo-
tive Stirling Engine program managed by NASA and in
solar programs together with JPL, Advanco and McDon-
ne1 Douglas.
In 1988 United Stirling was acquired by Kockums Marine
AB, which is one of the world leading submarine builder,
and the Stirling engine development was concentrated on
engines with air-independent combustion systems for
underwater application.
Parallel to the development of the 4 - 275 engine, which is
in operation in two submarines, Kockums Marine is also
developing a prototype energy system based on the 4 - 95
engine for use in an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle
( U ~) .
This paper describes the conversion of the 4 - 95 engine to
an underwater engine with a combustor that burns diesel
fuel with pure oxygen. Measured performance and experi-
ence from an endurance test will also be reported.
Introduction

The development of the Stirling engine for different appli-
cations has been going on in Sweden for more than twenty
years. Between 1968 and 1988 the development work was
performed by United Stirling AB and in the beginning of
1988 Kockums Marine AB acquired United Stirling and
decided to continue the work with the underwater appli-
cation of Stirling engines.
The Stirling engine V4 - 275R is a 75 kW engine specifical-
ly built for submarine installation. It is designed for low
noise and vibration and the high pressure combustor is
easily integrated with the basic engine. Thisengine type
has been installed in the Swedish submarine Nacken and
in the French submarine SAGA. Both submarines are in
operation and the results of the Stirling systems in the sea-
trials have been very good.
In 1987 another project was initiated to develop a power
system for an unmanned underwater vehicle. Based on
available market information it has been concluded that
the most interesting power levels would be in the range of
5 to 15 kW. In some applications the power demand could
be increased to 20 kW.
The engine used in the project is the 4 - 95 engine, which
originally was designed as a 40 kW automotive engine in
1975 and has been used also in generator sets and in solar
applications. A total of 50 engines of this type has been
built and more than 150,000 running hours have been
accumulated and the engine itself has proved to be very re-
liable.
The project is co-sponsored by the Swedish Defense Ma-
terial Administration and by the Swedish National Indus-
trial Board. The first phase of the project which includes
construction and testing of a prototype system in the labo-
ratory is now concluded.
A second phase where the engine system is integrated with
liquid oxygen tank and fuel storage in a hull section has
commenced. The dimension of the hull section coincides
with the dimensions used for the first generation DARPA
unmanned underwater vehicles for the US Navy.
Prototype system
A prototype system comprising engine with generator
and high pressure oxygen combustor has been built and
tested in the engine laboratory.
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Before the complete system was tested separate tests were
performed on critical subsystems. The new transmission
for driving the generator was developed and tested on an
engine with atmospheric combustor for more than 1,500
hours. The transmission utilizes a toothed belt drive with
the dual purpose of syncronizing the two crank shafts and
transferring the torque to the generator. This design (see
fig. 1) creates a very compact package and the whole unit
can be installed into a circular pod with a diameter of less
than 900 mm. The noise level is also low compared with
the geartrain transmission that is used on the standard
engine.
The high pressure combustor was separately tested on an
air cooled combustor test rig (see fig. 2) before it was inte-
grated on the Stirling engine. Very good flame stability
and an even temperature distribution was achieved over
the whole load spectra from full load down to 30 percent
load. The combustor was also tested with different com-
bustion pressures corresponding to maximum diving
depths 'from 50 meter to 150 meter.
Test results
The prototype system (see fig. 3) was installed in a test cell
and gaseous oxygen and fuel was supplied via tubes from
outdoor installations. The generator is a standard 15 kW
induction motor connected to the grid and acting as a
generator when running at an oversyncronous speed, e.g.
over 1,500 rpm.
Net electrical power is measured with a wattmeter of high
accuracy. Oxygen flow is measured with a mass flow trans-
ducer. Fuel flow is measured continuously with a positive
displacement meter and for the performance measure-
ments a high precision fuel balance is used. In order to
further control the oxygen and fuel flow measurement is
taken on the oxygen excess ratio in the exhausts down-
stream the back pressure valve.
The following specific oxygen conxumption was meas-
ured at differnt loads;
Electric power (kw) Oxygen consumption (g/kWh)
5
10
15
1,300
1,100
1,050
The oxygen excess ratio during all the measurement was 10
percent.
Preliminary noise and vibration .measurements were per-
formed and the results indicate that both noise and vibra-
tion in the higher frequencies are about 20 dB below those
of a diesel engine.
An endurance test has also been performed. The engine
has been running for 1,000 hours at a conqant load of 10
kW and with a combustion pressure of 10 bar. No major
failure has occurred during the endurance test but minor
errors that occurred in the auxiliary system limit the mean
time between stop to about 100 hours. It is, however, anti-
cipated that further development would increase the mean
time between stop to more than 500 hours.
The energy hull section
An energy hull section with LOX tank, fuel tank and
control systems are now being designed with the 4 - 95 en-
gine as the power conversion unit.
A diameter of 1.1 meter (44 inches) was selected in order
to be able to make direct comparison with the battery sec-
tion of the vehicles in the DARPA program (see fig. 4).
The length of the energy section is governed by the total
energy content. The energy objective for this design study
is 600 kWh which corresponds to 60 hours of operation at
10 kW power output. With the use of commercial avail-
able oxygen storage technology the energy requirement
can be achieved within a total hull section length of 3.5
meter.
The section will have its own weight compensating tank
and the whole section will be neutral boyant. The dis-
placement of the section is 3.4 ton which corresponds to
an energy density of 175 kWh/ton. As only half of the
length of the hull section is occupied by the LOX tank and
the other half by engine and controls, it is obvious that an
increase in energy content also will increase the energy
density.
According to figures that have been published on the
DARPA UUV, a 104 inches long silver zink battery sec-
tion has an energy content of 300 kWh which corresponds
to an energy density of 116 kWh/ton.
Conclusions
An air-independent power system based on the Stirling
engine and LOX storage can be used to provide power to
UUVs. For vehicles with a total dis lacement of more
the Stirling system has higher energy density than the sil-
ver zink battery system.
than 5 tons and an energy content o P 600 kWh or more,
53 1
Figure 1. 4-95 Underwater Stirling Engine,
Figure 2. Combustor test rig.
532
Figure 3. Prototype system in test cell.
Figure 4. Energy hull section.
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